Listen to the Interview

Meet Pamela

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features an interview with Pamela Roussos, who serves as Senior Director at Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Institute (known as GSBI). She will be sharing her experience and overviewing some of the key topics outlined in GSBI’s recent white paper titled “The GSBI Methodology for Social Entrepreneurship: Lessons from 12 Years of Capacity Development with 365 Social Enterprises”

GSBI is housed in the newly re-named Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at SCU, and was founded in 2003. In its first decade, GSBI offered a ‘one size fits all’ program and today features a range of programs to meet social enterprises and social entrepreneurs where they are today, as well as they grow and scale.

Pamela herself has a deep background in working with companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco on business strategy and go-to-market plans. She has worked in various capacities of corporations and non-profit organizations…and that’s all before she turned her full-time attention to engaging with GSBI over the past few years.

Listen to the Interview with Tim Freundlich

Meet Tim

On Innov8social we get a number of questions about the intersection of investment and impact. And on this episode of The Innov8social Podcast we offer a front row perspective from the impact investment sector. Tim Freundlich is the President of ImpactAssets and a longtime professional and innovator in the impact investment space. With the tagline “Invest with meaning” ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments that deliver financial, social and environmental returns.

Tim is well-versed in the space of building financial instruments and pathways for impact in investing. He has served in a number of capacities at Calvert Foundation,where he launched the Giving Fund – an impact investment-based donor advised fund. He was also instrumental in building the $225 million Calvert Community Investment Note with more than $750 million invested into 300-plus nonprofits and for profits globally.

Tim also co-founded and serves as Managing Partner for Good Capital which funds one of the premier global conferences for social enterprise, Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) annually in San Francisco.

Find Out More

More About Tim Freundlich

More ImpactAssets

Value proposition: “To catalyze the impact investing ecosystem by providing products and thought leadership that enable philanthropists, other asset owners and their wealth advisors to make investments with positive social, environmental and financial returns.“

Meet Ryan

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast, features an interview with Ryan Honeyman, author of the “B Corp Handbook”, speaker, and CEO of Honeyman Sustainability Consulting.

Ryan wrote and published The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good in 2014. It is the first commercially-published book on B Corporations. The B Corp Handbook explains what B Corps are, why they are important, and how companies can use the power of business to make money and make a difference.

The book is a user guide of sorts to the world of B Corps. It starts with a history of the certification and legal structure movement, provides benefits of being a B corp, and walks through various requirements of the B Impact Assessment, the step-by-step survey and “audit” tool employed by B Lab to measure a company’s social impact. Especially useful are the various examples, profiles, and case studies of social entrepreneurs and B Corp-certified companies throughout the book.

Ryan’s firm, Honeyman Sustainability Consulting, has worked with companies including Ben & Jerry’s, Method, Plum Organics, Klean Kanteen, and Nutiva to become Certified B Corporations, recertify, and maximize the value of their certification. And yup, his firm is a B Corp too.

Listen to the Interview

Find Out More

More About Ryan

More About “The B Corp Handbook”

Value proposition: “The book makes the business case for improving your social and environmental performance, and offers a step-by-step “quick start guide” on how your company can join [the B Corp movement].”

https://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/square-headshots-3.jpg500500neetalhttps://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo_web.pngneetal2015-08-20 07:06:512015-08-20 07:22:45Interview with Ryan Honeyman, Author of "The B Corp Handbook" and Consultant to Social Enterprises

Meet Matthew

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features all-around creative and dedicated social entrepreneur, Matthew Manos. I connected with Matthew after finding the incredible tool he created called “Models of Impact” (modelsofimpact.co). It is an interactive mapping web tool that is (in its own words) an “attempt to document every business model in social enterprise, ever”.

Matthew is artist, author, and award-winning designer, who is interested in the concept of experimental economies. He founded and heads up Global Strategy for design consultancy, VeryNice. The consultancy is impact driven, and dedicates 1/2 of its work to nonprofits, at no cost to the organizations. With its business model, VeryNice has provided over $3M worth of pro bono design services to organizations in 45 countries. VeryNice has worked with companies and organizations including UNICEF, NASA, Google, MTF, Disney Imagineering, and Samsung.

Additionally, and new news since we did our interview is that Models of Impact has relaunched as a subsidiary of VeryNice, committed to helping nonprofit executives and startup social entrepreneurs discover business models that are a good fit for the vision and missions.

More About Models of Impact

Value proposition: “Models of Impact is an online platform and strategic consultancy that works with social entrepreneurs and non-profit executives to invent business models that create sustainable impact in the world. “

https://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/wayne-sutton_square-photo.png500500neetalhttps://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo_web.pngneetal2015-07-30 07:14:132015-08-03 05:15:02Interview with Wayne Sutton, General Partner and Co-Founder of BUILDUP.vc

Meet Nicolas

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Nicolas Hazard, one of the foremost global social innovators, whose roots are in France, but whose impact is resoundingly global.

Nicolas is President of Le Comptoir de l’Innovation (CDI) which supports social enterprises throughout the world via an impact investing fund and an international network of incubators. He also leads CALSO, a non-profit organization based in California, which focuses on workforce development.

Nicolas serves as Vice-Chairman of GROUPE SOS, Europe’s largest social enterprise, which has over 12K employees and a turnover of $1B.

The story of Groupe SOS is a notable one for global social impact, and one that is not nearly well-known enough. In this interview, we dive into Nicolas’ own story, and particularly, the work, history, and reach of Groupe SOS in France, Europe, and globally.

Listen to the Interview

Find Out More

More About Nicolas

More About Groupe SOS

Value proposition: “Basing its actions on the fight against different forms of social exclusion, GROUPE SOS has diversified its activities over the years and is able today to provide solutions for people at all levels in society, and especially those with few or no resources.”

Background: “With its 12,000 employees and 350 structures, GROUPE SOS is one of Europe’s foremost social and societal undertakings. For 30 years now, GROUPE SOS has been putting economic efficiency at the service of the interests of the general public. In so doing, it provides responses to the issues of today’s society by developing innovative solutions in its five main fields of activity. The actions undertaken by GROUPE SOS influence the lives of over a million people every year.”

https://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nicolas-hazard_hd_hs_e.png500500neetalhttps://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo_web.pngneetal2015-07-23 07:28:432015-08-01 07:04:18Interview with Nicolas Hazard, President of CALSO and Vice Chairman of Groupe SOS

Meet Danielle

On this week’s episode of The Innov8social Podcast we have Danielle Harlan, who is the Founder & CEO of the Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential based in San Jose. Danielle has a doctorate in political science and Masters in Education from Stanford University. She served as Chief of Operations at the Carnegie Foundation and has also been an instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has guest lectured at the University’s Institute of Design, i.e. d.school. Danielle is an alumnus of Teach for America and has taught internationally in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, and South Africa.

In 2015, she gave a TEDx talk on the topic of “Reimagining Leadership for the 21st Century”. She discusses the concept of the “new alphas” — a new framework for leadership for changemaker “daring to lead differently”. It is an update on the traditional alpha model that focuses on achievement and high performance, but doesn’t account for fulfillment, long-term well-being, and impact.

Through her research, observation, and interviews of “new alpha” leaders she notes that they are especially committed to personal excellence, building positive relationships, and valuing character and ethics. You can learn more about her theory of the new alphas in her TEDx talk below.

Danielle’s work at the Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential centers around cultivating leadership at an individual and also working with groups to develop organizational leadership goals and practices.

Listen to the Podcast

Find Out More

More About Danielle

More About The Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential

Focus: “We believe that excellent people are the foundation for effective leadership. Guided by this belief, we provide personal and professional development and training to advance individual and organizational performance.”

Meet Eric Mangin

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast, features Éric A. A. Mangin, Founder & CEO at U2GUIDE. U2Guide founded in 2014 in Span and which dubs itself as the most ethical travel website. In 2015 it was named one of the TOP 5 Travel Websites by TravelDor in 2015, alongside AirBnB, and TripAdvisor.

Eric was born in France and is world traveler and has spent over a decade traveling through Europe, Africa, and. He spent much of that time working with nonprofits and international organizations on projects related to sustainable development, cross-culture collaborations, and humanitarian aid efforts.

Listen to the Interview

Find Out More

More About Éric

More About U2Guide

Value proposition: U2Guide is a peer-to-peer company travel guide company that connects travelers with tour guides, professionals, and activity instructors globally to create unique, customized travel experiences. It reserves the opportunity to dedicate 50% of its profits to nonprofits to fund cultural, environmental and humanitarian efforts in visited country.

Meet Neil

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Dr. Neil Patel, a social entrepreneur with a doctorate in Computer Science, who grew up in northern California and then relocated to India in 2010 where he launched and is scaling an innovative impact venture, called Awaaz.de.

Neil Patel

Awaaz.De connects mobile voice-based technology with a social platform to provide low-cost, voice messages that can be shared with hundreds or thousands of people. Neil has described it as a “voice twitter”.

Awaaz.De originally focused on working with small farmers in rural Gujarat, a state in the central India, to enable the sharing of best farming practices and agricultural information.

The company’ has scaled and grown, won a number of awards, has facilitated over 4M calls to 400K people, is now in 6 countries, 9 languages and is constantly finding new applications for their technology.Neil received a Bachelors in Computer Science from UC Berkeley before pursuing his Ph.D at Stanford University. His doctoral thesis focus was designing voice-based virtual communities which led to the co-founding of Awaaz.De, along with his Ph.D advisor and UC Berkeley Professor, Dr. Tapan Parikh.

More About Awaaz.De

Value proposition: “We provide content to our partners and users in their local language to communicate with important stakeholders and beneficiaries for a variety of purposes and goals. Our clients include businesses, rural communities, schools, NGOs and many more.”

https://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pic12_neilpatel.jpg300300neetalhttps://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo_web.pngneetal2015-06-29 11:55:572015-08-01 07:04:51Interview with Neil Patel, Social Entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Awaaz.De

Meet Brandon

Brandon Smith

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Los Angeles-based Brandon Smith, a dedicated serial social entrepreneur.

Brandon leads the Child and Family Guidance Center’s social enterprise development efforts toward diversifying the agency’s revenue streams. He also recently served as President of Net Impact Los Angeles Professional Chapter.

And, Brandon is working on a number of impact initiatives. One such social innovation is CauseDate– a dating platform for the sustainably conscious.Brandon also co-founded Awesomework.org — a database of nearly 6500 impact organizations, and is working with student organization Oxypreneurship at his alma mater–Occidental College– to help establish a student scholarship for social entrepreneurship

I met Brandon at a Net Impact conference a few years back and have enjoyed connecting over social media and learning more about his expansive view of impact from the articles and content he shares.

Listen to the Interview

https://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pic1_brandonsmith.jpg300300neetalhttps://www.innov8social.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo_web.pngneetal2015-06-27 11:44:472015-08-03 06:18:12Interview with Brandon Smith, Social Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of CauseDate